Any Sydney mums around?

[thatsnotmymonster]

I am getting pretty excited as it is looking increasingly likely that dh is about to be offered a job in Sydney (should know by next week). However, whether we are able to accept or not all depends on the salary package, particularly with th school fee issue- has anyone else moved and had the company pay the school fees?

We live in Scotland and so ds is in P1 but he will be 6 in March and dd1 is due to start school after the summer as she will be 5 in July. I don't know whether they should go into Yr 1 and 2 in Oz from when we move or whether they shoud go into Yr 1 and kindergarten. Do most people wait until the year the dc turns 6 or send them the year they turn 5?

The office is in Pyrmont and we are hoping to rent in a nearby suburb- I have been looking at Lilyfield, Five Dock, Drummoyne...can anyone recommend any other nice suburbs in that area or tell me if there are any to avoid?

Anything else I should know? If this happens we will be moving around April.

Thanks!

hey sunny! how are you going? is it hot where you are? It wasn't too bad this morning but it's heating up here so we're hiding indoors again. Looking forward to 35 degree heat again this weekend.

It's quite pleasant here today thumb, about 24/25. Sun was shining earlier but it's gone all cloudy now. DD is having a birthday party at the weekend, it's a pool party, so I am really hoping the weather picks up (though maybe not to 35) - it was pissing down last Saturday. The thought of having to find some kind of alternative way to keep ten 8 year olds amused fills me with horror - I was blissfully assuming they would just swim and I'd make afternoon tea and leave it at that.

Whoa, sorry to have offended you with the medical data! No offence meant!!
Actually you probably should show your friend as it turns out she was almost certainly misdiagnosed (not uncommon there for a while apparently) and there might be something that could be done for her?

But hey, if you want to fumigate then fumigate.

Sunny, I just want someone to come around an nuc all the revolting cockroaches. Bleuh!!

she's a healthcare professional herself, Bubbaluv. I expect she's seen it already.

We haven't fumigated this house - although we probably should to get rid of the buggering cockroaches! I hate them, fuckers.

Sunny - fingers crossed it stays nice for you then :)

Oh good, Thumb. Cause it would be horrible to go through life thinking your skin problem was due to a spider bite and there was nothing you could do if it could maybe be fixed.

I don't think fumigating our place would help with the roaches unfortunately. The streets round here are writhing with them when we walk the dog at night. Makes my skin crawl! The dog eats them though!

oh gak!! they're out on the streets? I have enough problems going to the loo at night and the baby-mouse sized fuckers scoot out from under the bath - I have a can of mortein in the bathroom for such eventualities.
Mind you - some take a while to die - I sprayed one the other night, a lot. It fell down aside the loo on its back, I left it there to die. Went back to the loo a few hours later, it's legs were still fecking moving!! so I sprayed it some more.
In the morning I asked DH to dispose of it - he went in and its legs were still waving! he flushed it down the loo. That should have killed it.

I keep a thong (footwear variety) next to the loo for similar situations!

Someone told me not to bash them once - something to do with egg release - I don't know if that's true or not but I prefer to gas the feckers just in case.

seems it is true - and that I should get some boric acid to put down where the boy can't reach it.

I just hate spiders of any description so an annual spray keeps my anxiety levels manageable! We have had one huntsman inside and a couple of house spiders in two years so worth it for that. Don't know if I could even identify a whitetail tbh but we live in prime funnelweb territory (and yes I know how unusual it is to get them in the house but my friend up the road had one in her pool recently).

Oh sorry, took to long to post - we're talking cockies now! DH came home from work once to find me shivering half naked in the communal hallway in our unit in Potts Point after a particularly unpleasant cockroach incident. It was 20 years ago mind.

oooo sunny - I've heard they can survive a while in the water as well, unlike pretty much anything else - someone here told me that, it freaked me good and proper!

Cockroaches used to have me climbing on chairs too, but I'm getting more hardened - however, had one flying round the living room the other night - that really freaked me out!

Do cockroaches actually bite or anything or do they just look creepy/dirty? Getting the house sprayed sounds like a good idea anyway

DH emailed yesterday to ask them to re-issue the contract with a couple of amendments and then he will sign and send it back- think they've said they'll get it back to us tomorrow/tonight. He doesn't want to hand his notice in until it is all signed and sealed- but hopefully that will be tomorrow...which means we will be headed out there around the 17th May

No, cockroaches don't bite. They are just disgusting things. One "weed" on my foot once when I was MNing in the dark - I felt something, brushed it away with my hand and must have scared it - and my hand came up wet. Put the light on - fecking cockroach sitting on the floor! Argh!

They excrete indiscriminately and you don't want that over your worksurfaces or food (never leave food out, and best not to leave dirty washing up as it encourages the buggers, oh and ants as well).

And they fly! Ugh. Just killed another one in the laundry - sprayed it white with mortein, that did for it much quicker. Must have actually blocked some spiracles this time

Ugh. I really don't mind spiders. (We have loads of the golden orbs around here and I have also seen one huntsman on our patio). The cockroaches were the worst thing when we arrived in Sydney. We have become very familiar with Mortein - but not yet had our own apartment properly fumigated.

Just as an aside, is there any way of changing the mumsnet time displayed on posts so I can see what it is over here without having to do the +11 hr adjustment? Feeling lazy...

To add my story to the flight debate, we flew Quantas to Hong Kong and stopped there for 4 nights. Had a good crew on the way to Hong Kong, a grumpy crew on the way to Sydney. Arrived in our friends' house about 10pm and thought it would be great for getting the boys adjusted to Australian time, but they continued waking late and sleeping late for quite a while. I think the summer holiday didn't help but it's not as if we could have got a school for them straight away - after all it took us about 3 weeks to get an apartment.

Overall I would still recommend the stopover as a 9 or 10 hr flight with young kids is pretty gruelling and we'd never been to Hong Kong before so it was a great experience to add to the emigration story.

oh cripes, this thread is making my skin crawl. Gah! Hate, HATE roaches, and we have loads of them here too. We have put roach bombs under the house, and sprayed all the corners and crevices inside and out with surface spray, and it has made a big difference, although we still find one (dying in a corner usually, from having been near the surface spray) at least once a week.

Thank heavens DD2 (18 months) is scared of them and doesn't try to pick them up or eat them or antyhing horrendous like that, she just stands and sort of runs on the spot shouting "cock-bee, cock-bee!".

I think the funnelwebs in the pool somehow make an air bubble around themselves, and so manage to stay underwater for a while. Scary, my brother has had them in his pool too.

Not saying its true or not, but I must say I've only ever heard the thing about white tail spiders on Mumsnet, and have lived in Aus all my life bar 3 years in UK.

Hope the contract can be sorted out v soon for you TNNM. When will you come?

bubbaluv - lol at the idea of you keeping a thong of the non footwear variety next to the loo for killing roaches!

Astrophe it will be mid May sometime as dh has a 3mth notice period. I am glad cos I need that time to sort evertything out!!

It is a good time of year for coming over to adjust to the weather, I think. After all winter over there is pretty much the same as summer over here.

I hope you will all be available for a meet up sometime after we have settled in?

ahahaha. Don't throw out all your woollies, will you - this isn't Queensland, ya know.
You will need jumpers, boots, socks, jeans, fleeces, possibly woolly hats, gloves - depending on where you end up settling, it can get down to 0 degrees or thereabouts (it did last winter). The houses here aren't built for staying warm, either - although newer houses are better insulated than our 90yo jobby, central heating is almost unheard of (except in the Blue Mountains and other really cold areas). If you are lucky, your rental property will have an aircon unit that does hot and cold air (reverse something or other) - ours is old and only does cold air, but we have an open fire for heat. And by God we needed it last year! Also electrical heaters and a tumble drier, due to lack of CH, no airing cupboard (hot water tank is outside).

Bring clothes with you for all weathers - they're more expensive here, so send most of your hot weather clothes freight and carry the cold weather clothes in your suitcase. You are very likely to need them. But keep a couple of t-shirts and shorts/light trousers/skirts in your luggage as well, just in case - after all, the weather here can change by about 20 degrees in one day! not often, but it has happened a few times since I've been here.

And yes, of course I would be happy to do a meet up when you're settled. :)

Lol. I will be bringing all the cold weather clothes of course. I know it can be cold in Winter there but Scottish summers ain't exactly warm The last few years there have been plenty of summer days where the temperature does not get above 12C and if it gets to 16/17C then we are all in the paddling pool .

Though our cold weather clothes are mainly suitable for temperatures well below 0. A few weeks ago when the last of the snow had disappeared the kids asked if I could get the paddling pool out- brrrrrrrr- it was still about 1.5C

Excellent- I look forward to meeting up!

Ah yes - I forgot you were currently in Scotland! Snow suits and thermals may not be required - it shouldn't get that cold.

Sounds like your DC are somewhat weather-hardened - probably just as well that you are coming over in Winter then, it will give you the chance to warm up slowly!

My thoughts exactly!

Will probably bring snow suits in case we take a trip to the mountains/go skiing but not for everyday wear

Yes they like warm weather and cope fine in 30C (occasional UK day and in France/Croatia) but have never experienced hotter than that so I think acclimatising more slowly will be a good thing!

May should be quite nice though, shouldn't it? So we may get a few weeks of warmer weather before Winter sets in and it doesn't last that long either, right? I mean here it is winter from Oct-April. This year the snow started in Nov. Last year it melted in April . It's gone now but I guess we could still get more as it hasn't got above 4C yet.

My heating bill is not good though

enjoy your heating bill while ye may! It's going to be a lot worse here, I'm afraid. :(

Y'know, I can't remember when it started getting really chilly here last year, but it probably was around May/June time. It's unstable though - you might need thick jumpers one day and then be back in t-shirts the next, all depends. Worse is when you need thick jumpers in the morning and t-shirts and shorts by midday! It's just not straightforward - but you'll get used to it